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Friday, March 05, 2010

Evidently I’m a bad Bruins fan. I’ve been dubbed a bad Bruins fan for two reasons:

1)I was unhappy and/or negative towards the failure of Peter Chiarelli to make a move on deadline day

2)I’m not impressed by a 3-2 shootout win over the Maple Leafs

There are fans out in New England that feel if you’re a true fan, you root for your team no matter what and don’t question anything they do. You know what that reminds me of? Little lemmings running off a cliff. Now, I still choose to follow the Bruins, watch the games, and root for a win; I just choose to do so by peering over the cliff. Preferably tied to a tree for precautionary purposes.

Are you ready for this next part New England lemmings? I still love the Bruins. I still think they’re a great group of hockey players. But guess what else? I’m not afraid to say they suck this year. I’m not afraid to say that Peter Chiarelli has failed this team as a GM this year with his unhealthy obsession with the future. And more importantly, I’m not afraid to say that I’m absolutely underwhelmed by last night’s win.

It’s great that these guys came away with a "W" with Tim Thomas in net and Patrice Bergeron out with a pulled groin. It’s even better that Johnny Boychuk was on fire last night. The team showed a little bit more life than usual, and they beat Toronto. We all know the more Toronto loses the better. Unfortunately, the fact remains that they were a shootout away from a loss to one of the worst teams in the league. Still, I log into my twitter feed this morning to read oodles of praise towards the Bruins, the coaching staff, and anyone else in the organization they could think to praise. "The Bruins are back!" "Suck it haters!" "Tim Thomas is a god!" And then, of course, there was the usual fighting over who gets to date Johnny Boychuk. Excuse me while I go bash my head against the wall.

Yes, last night’s win is great, but take a second to realize who we beat. We only out shot Toronto 31-26. Thank God Thomas was ready to get back in net. Now, the Bruins head out on a seven game road trip, playing the Islanders Saturday. They’re going to need to show up with a lot more than they did last night if they want to come home with a winning record. I, the bad Bruins fan, will be cheering for my team.

Samantha Lewis is the Creative Director of Northshore Editorial. While she will be cheering for the Bruins on their road trip, she can not guarantee that harsh criticism won't follow. You have been warned. You can read more from Samantha at Beantown Athletic Supporters.

I commented to you on Twitter but can’t limit myself to 140 characters on this. Since the reign of New England sports started in 2001, it seems that the font office of every team was on board in terms of bringing big talent, investing in their teams, and creating all the championships we’ve seen in less than a decade…except for the Bruins.

The commenter above seems to think that Chiarelli did a great job with what he had last year. While the Bruins had some great young talent, it’s actually Julian who puts that young talent into the offensive and defensive schemes, sets the tone for all the scrappy play and fight they had in them, and made heroes out of guys like Lucic and Kessel.

And what did Chiarelli do after that great season last year? He traded our highest scorer, our only sniper, to a team we have to face several times a year. This is a mistake not even the millions 16 year old EA Sports GMs around the country would make. And you know what? Each time I see the pathetic ’09-’10 Bruins limp away from a game with 1 or 2 goals, blow leads from which they cannot comeback in the 3rd period, and get beat by piss ant teams like the Rangers because we can’t put the puck in the net, I think of Chiarelli's stupid face, and that whole Bruins front office charging their $125 tickets for such an inferior product out on the ice.

I’m not sure if you saw the interview with Chiarelli that aired last night where he was asked how he thinks his team is doing and whether or not they forecasted the players to be where they are right now. He admitted, with a sad tone, that not one single player is playing as well as projected, and not only that, don’t blame him for the trades because when players don’t perform, they don’t make very enticing trade bait in the market. When asked what he thought the team will do, he paused and said, “well, I think we might make the playoffs..” and then froze as if he was about to say “however we’re obviously going to get our asses handed to us in the first round, if we’re even lucky to get in.” I’ve never seen a GM with that kind of tone and sober outlook mid-season, ever. Hey, at least he's not fooling himself, right?

The Bruins are really the only of the 4 main teams these days that don’t quite get it, and have never gotten on board with this New England dynasty thing, even before it started. The other 3 teams got the memo. The Bruins still struggle to fill seats and create a buzz, and other than last year, continue to fail to put a team that has a real shot on the ice. That, is 100% the GM’s and owner's fault. They are light years behind the strategies of the other big 3, and will continue being the penny-pinching, small-market, “don’t-expect-much-from-us” kind of club, just like they've always have been under the miser Sinden era.

And fair warning to the front office…I’m no sports marketing expert and I certainly don’t have the money to buy or make business decisions for a pro franchise. But having a sucky team WHILE charging an insane amount for tickets, typically leads to lots of seats in the upright and folded position, which is a really tough downward spiral from which to climb out. That is not Boston sports to me. This is New England, and we expect great teams with big names on them. Bring this team to Kansas City if you want to run it like a small market, “who-cares” type of franchise. I hope other Bruins fans are equally as enraged.